Critique my stockpile please

[ziggiestardust]

Hi all, I’ve been slowly amassing a stockpile based on what we use and when there’s an offer on, I’ll buy 2 or 3 of said item and store the rest.
Can you please critique what I have, and give me areas for improvement? Also; if I’m missing a vital category, please tell me! We’ve been using our garage and storing in large plastic bins so far, it actually hasn’t taken up any room, it doesn’t look like much compared to what some people on this board have! Obviously I have at least 2 weeks worth of food in at any one time; my freezer & cupboards are always full because we are very fortunate. So obviously this list doesn’t include freezer stuff.

Tins

Macaroni cheese x5
Spaghetti strands x10
Baked beans x10
Soup (Heinz mixed) x20
Mixed spicy beans x10
Butter beans x5
Kidney beans x5

Sauces

Cheese sauce x5
Tomato pasta sauce x5
Madras sauce
Thai red curry sauce
Coconut milk

Packets

Stuffing balls mix
Bread sauce mix

Pasta & pulses (dried)

1kg Red lentils
1kg spaghetti x2
Super noodles x20
250g fine egg noodles

Sweets

Marmalade
Lemon curd
Marmite
Jam
Caramel
Red cherry pie filling x2
Peach slices x5
Sponge pudding x5
Custard x5
Rice pudding x5

Flavourings/seasonings

Salt
Goose fat
Olive oil
Vegetable oil
Chicken oxo
Beef oxo
Wholegrain mustard
Jalapeños

Odds and ends

Breadsticks
Teabags
20L water
1L whiskey
Cat food (pouches meat) x40
Cat food (dried) 1kg
Cat flea medicine 3 months worth

Cleaning products

Bleach 1L
Washing up liquid
Anti bacterial spray 1L

Toiletries

Nail brush
Toothpaste
Shower gel
Children’s toothpaste
Kids mouthwash
Kids shampoo
Sanitary towels x40
Tampons x60
Toilet rolls x16

Medicines

Migraleve
Diarrhoea capsules
Lemsip x10
Savlon
Compeed
Dulcolax
Kool n soothe strips
Vicks vaporub
Pregnancy tests x2
Nurofen Plus
After sun
Sun cream stick
Vicks first defence
Dioralyte
EMLA cream
Small pair scissors
Extra inhaler prescriptions x3

Bella I'm not really worried about everyone else.

Ok well I've just had a google and read some articles on the independent.

It makes more sense now, I did vote btw, to remain, but I guess I've always thought it was one of those things that gets blown out of proportion.

I guess only time will tell

Sweden realeased a pamphlet earlier this year. One that got me was phone chargers for cars. It might be worst case scenario but struck me as useful.
Anyways here it is: www.dinsakerhet.se/siteassets/dinsakerhet.se/broschyren-om-krisen-eller-kriget-kommer/om-krisen-eller-kriget-kommer---engelska.pdf

Antiseptic cream/liquid

Bella I'm not really worried about everyone else

Well, unless someone really fancies chicken, can't buy any and know you keep them

To be fair @gamerchick , apart from trying encourage people on here to look at putting extra food away, I don't really care about anyone much either. I want people to be a bit more resilient so that they don't clog up the emergency services with avoidable nonsense if things get tricky.

Haha I'd like to see them get past the guard dogs first

I’ve invested in a couple of solar lanterns that double up as power banks (for phone chargers)

These sound awesome for camping etc., not just imminent meltdown of society! Could you link, please, @ziggie?

@NoSquirrels - if the power goes out, dead handy.

Two things that have occurred to me reading your list, and then reading the Swedish Government leaflet, is that you’re short of fresh water if you want to cook any rice or pasta, and secondly, your freezer full of meat will become a liability if your power goes off.

Can’t see any paracetamol on your medications list, either.

But am in awe of your preparedness. I must give it some thought.

Water in 2 litre bottles is dirt cheap in supermarkets. Also recommend you look at rain water collection if you want to go that route. If not, look at likely sources nearby and how to boil to purify.
There are alternatives to freezing if that's also a route you want to go down. Dehydrators and vacuum sealers are pretty cheap - get what you pay for, obviously. I invested in a pressure canner but, again, not a route you need to go down.
Cooking with lentils and pulses is underrated by meat eaters and they are simple, cheap and easy to store.

I also got some yeast flakes which vegans talk about when you say they aren't getting any B vitamins in a vegan diet.

We have a dehydrator and I dehydrate all manner of fruit and veg, e.g. strawberries, kiwi, kale, beetroot. These once dehydrated will keep for ages, I simply bag up and pop them into tubs with lids on.

We also keep several varieties of nuts, seeds and nut flours such as almond flour.

Dehydrators are excellent- I stick an oxygen absorber and a moisture absorber in with any stuff I store. Overkill, I know. Comically, I have some dehydrated cabbage stored in a jar this way and I can't open it!!!
So my fave cabbage and mash will have to wait.

Bellini - some brands of yeast flakes don't contain B12, so look out for that or cover it separately. Marmite does contain it. Get a sublingual if you have pernicious anaemia and injections aren't available, it's a more absorbable route. Also be aware of pseudo B12 - some vegans claim that fermented veg and seaweeds contain B12, they don't, and they can actually block the uptake of true B12. Marmite, fortified plant milks and a supplement will cover you if veggie. If a meat eater, eat liver occasionally.

I'm a vegemite fan so that's given me even more excuse to get some.
My mum used to give me yeast tablets when I was a kid (70s thing) and we used to get Horlicks tablets which I actually liked. Wonder if they still make them?

Two things that have occurred to me reading your list, and then reading the Swedish Government leaflet, is that you’re short of fresh water if you want to cook any rice or pasta, and secondly, your freezer full of meat will become a liability if your power goes off.

Passata is very good for cooking pasta straight into but actually water is fairly easy to prep for in this country. In normal weather conditions we get a decent amount of rain and rain water can be filtered and then sterilised very easily with a couple of drops of normal household bleach (thin bleach not toilet cleaner which lots on MN seem to call "bleach"). A couple of water butts will stand you in very good stead.
Having said that, most of us who prep have food grade containers for storing water which we then switch out every six months or so (I use mine for watering the vegetable garden) plus a decent number of bottles of cheap 'spring' water out of a tap in the factory and put into a bottle

On the meat front I do not store everything raw. There is a good amount of cooked food in my freezer (probably more than 50% of it) and you would always eat the freezer contents first in the event of medium/longer term power outage.

Currently dehydrating some turkey mince as another non-freezer meat storage option. Have a few US style cans of taco mince (family fave) - have a US pressure canner. More likely to move to veggie options to be honest.

bellini do you make a lot of jerky/other dehydrated meat? I use my dehydrater for fruit and veg but am nervous about eggs and meat.

I'm thinking about making jerky but, like you, have always been a bit nervous of doing meat. I thought that some turkey mince would be a good experiment. It's dehydrated really quickly.

How do dehydrators get cleaned?
Are you using them for raw meat as well as fruit and veg?
Is that in separate batches?

Mines basically a circle with hot drying air coming up the centre. It has a pile of removable vented plastic trays that sit on top of the circle each with a hole in it. The hot air come up the centre and circulates through the trays. There's a lid that sits on the top tray. Each tray can be washed individually as can the lid. I wipe around the centre bit .
For the mince and for fruit leathers (which dd demolished as soon as I make them) I use a circle of baking parchment cut to fit. Stops stuff falling through.

I experimented with the meat by boiling it first - not my usual way of doing meat (!) but I saw the suggestion on a backpacker meal prep vlog. I guess you might lose some vitamins and be left with just meat protein. I've also seen it cooked as normal into a tomato sauce and then dehydrated down. 1960sHikerDude and Kevin Outdoors YouTube channels.

I bung my trays in the dishwasher. I have a large dehydrater and do batches of one thing at a time. I buy fruit which is marked down and dehydrate it straight away. We then use it for adding to cereals as well as just for long term storage. It then gets rehydrated before use simply by putting it into a bit of water (or for slow cook stews etc you can sometimes just throw it straight in).

I might be brave and try doing meat if you don't die bellini